1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an environmental impact information system, and, more particularly, to a system, method, recording medium, and computer data signal, for providing and recording environmental impact information, and for collecting information regarding various environmental impacts at an organization (company, corporation, etc.) so as to contribute to the decision making with respect to the management of the organization.
2. Description of the Related Art
To leave the earth with a full of nature and green to the future generations, it is essential to reduce bad effects (environmental impacts) on the environment. Hence, activities for reducing the environmental impacts are done at various organizations, such as companies, public organizations and the like.
To minimize the environmental impacts with high efficiency, it is important to know the environmental impacts at activities of the organization. For example, it is necessary to obtain the environmental impacts (those environmental impacts at each operational process) in the life cycle of products, using the idea of Eco-Balance.
Conventionally, there is no system for accurately obtaining the environmental impacts in the life cycle of the products. Thus, in many cases, the environmental conservation activities are done on the impulse or by individuals who personally care about the environment at the organization.
It is impossible to invest an unlimited amount of money for the environmental conservation activities. Hence, it is desired that a maximum level of environmental conservation can be achieved with a minimum amount of investment, further that certain economical benefits can be obtained.
However, the amount of investment (expenses) required for the environmental conservation activities at the organization and the effects thereof can not easily be shown on the financial analysis, and hence can not objectively be analyzed. Therefore, while promoting the environmental conservation activities at the organization, there has been a lack of information for determining how much amount of investment should be made to a particular field of the activities.
The present invention has been made in consideration of the above. It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a system, method, recording medium, and computer data signal, for efficiently minimizing environmental impacts and facilitating activities for gaining the economical benefit.
Another object thereof is to provide a system, method, recording medium and computer data signal, for facilitating the appropriate decision making with respect to the management regarding environmental matters, thereby contributing to a reduction in the environmental impacts.
Still another object thereof is to provide a system, method, recording medium and data signal, for obtaining environmental impacts in a product""s life cycle, and for use in the environmental conservation activities and decision making with respect to the management of an organization.
Still yet another object thereof is to provide a system, method, recording medium and computer data signal, for obtaining expenses for environmental conservation and effects thereof, and for use in the environmental management.
In order to accomplish the above objects, according to the first aspect of the present invention, an environmental impact information system comprising:
an environmental impact information obtaining unit which obtains environmental impact information regarding an environmental impact at a plurality of processes included in activities of an organization;
an environmental impact information collector which collects the environmental impact information obtained by the environmental impact information obtaining unit; and
an environmental impact information analyzer which analyzes the environmental impact information collected by the environmental impact information collector, and obtains an reduction amount of the environmental impact.
According to this invention, the environmental impact information obtaining unit obtains environmental impact information regarding environmental impacts, for example, at a designing process, a manufacturing process, a distribution/sales process, a usage process (while products are used), a maintenance process and a collection/recycling process which are all included in the business activities. The environmental impact information collector collects the environmental impact information obtained by the environmental impact information obtaining unit, through a network, for example. The environmental impact information analyzer analyzes the environmental impact information collected by the environmental impact information collector, and obtains a set of environmental impacts in a product""s life cycle. As a result of this, the system of this invention can acquire the set of environmental impacts in a product""s life cycle, and refers to information representing the environmental impacts, so as to facilitate the decision making with respect to the management and environmental conservation activities.
The environmental impact information system may further include
a chemical material information memory unit which stores in advance chemical-material information regarding chemical materials included in a plurality of to-be-supplied materials to be used for manufacturing products, and
wherein the environmental impact information obtaining unit specifies each of the to-be-supplied materials to be used for manufacturing products, and reads out the chemical-material information corresponding to the specified to-be-supplied materials from the chemical material information memory unit.
The environmental impact information obtaining unit may measure an amount of consumed electricity, an amount of consumed fossil fuel, an amount of consumed water, an amount of consumed chemical materials, an exhaust amount of exhaust gas and an exhaust amount of waste while products are manufactured.
The environmental impact information obtaining unit may measure an amount of used fuel and an exhaust amount of exhaust gas while products are transported.
The environmental impact information obtaining unit may measure information representing a status of products.
The environmental impact information obtaining unit may measure an amount of consumed electricity, an amount of consumed fossil fuel, an amount of used water, an amount of used chemical materials, an exhaust amount of exhaust gas, an amount of waste, and an amount of maintenance in a predetermined unit while maintenance is performed for products.
The environmental impact information obtaining unit may measure an amount of consumed fuel and an exhaust amount of exhaust gas while products are being collected, and measure also information representing a recycling status of the collected products.
In order to achieve the above objects, according to the second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an environmental impact information system comprising:
environmental impact information obtaining means for obtaining environmental impact information regarding an environmental impact at a plurality of processes included in activities of an organization;
environmental impact information collection means for collecting the environmental impact information obtained by the environmental impact information obtaining means;
environmental impact information analyzing means for analyzing the environmental impact information collected by the environmental impact information collection means, and obtaining a set of environmental impacts in a product""s life cycle; and
report information generation means for generating report information in a predetermined format, based on the environmental impact information collected by the environmental impact information collection means and information representing the set of environmental impacts obtained by the environmental impact information analyzing means.
According to this invention, the environmental impact information obtaining means obtains environmental impact information regarding environmental impacts, for example, at a designing process, a manufacturing process, a distribution/sales process, a usage process (while products are used), a maintenance process and a collection/recycling process which are all included in the business activities. The environmental impact information collection means collects the obtained environmental impact information, through a network, for example. The environmental impact information analyzing means analyzes the collected environmental impact information, and obtains a set of environmental impacts in a product""s life cycle. The report information generation means generates report information in a predetermined format, based on the environmental impact information collected by the environmental impact information collection means and information representing the set of environmental impacts obtained by the environmental impact information obtaining means. As a result of this, the system of this invention can acquire information representing the environmental impacts in the product""s life cycle and refer to the acquired information, thereby contributing to the environmental conservation activities and the decision making with respect to the management of the organization.
In order to achieve the above objects, according to the third aspect of the present invention, there is provided an environmental impact information system including a plurality of process management devices for managing a plurality of processes included in activities of an organization and an environmental management device which are connected with each other through a predetermined network, and wherein:
each of the process management devices obtains environmental impact information regarding an environmental impact at each of the processes; and
the environmental management device collects the environmental impact information obtained by each of the process management devices through a network, and obtains a set of environmental impacts in a product""s life cycle based on the collected environmental impact information.
According to this invention, each of the process management devices obtains environmental impact information regarding environmental impacts, for example, at a designing process, a manufacturing process, a distribution/sales process, a usage process (while products are used), a maintenance process and a collection/recycling process which are all included in the business activities. The environmental management device collects the obtained environmental impact information, through a network, for example, and obtains a set of environmental impacts in a product""s life cycle based on the collected information. As a result of this, the system of this invention can acquire the set of environmental impacts at the product""s life cycle, thereby facilitating the environmental conservation activities and decision making on the business management.
The process management device may obtain information regarding chemical materials included in materials to be used for manufacturing products.
The process management device may measure an amount of used electricity, an amount of used fossil fuel, an amount of used water, an amount of used chemical materials, an exhaust amount of exhaust gas, and an exhaust amount of waste while products are manufactured.
The process management device may measure an amount of consumed fuel and an exhaust amount of exhaust gas while products are transported.
The process management device may measure information representing a status of each product.
The process management device may measure an amount of used electricity, an amount of used fossil fuel, an amount of used water, an amount of used chemical materials, an exhaust amount of exhaust gas, an exhaust amount of waste, and an amount of maintenance in a predetermined unit while maintenance is performed for products.
The process management device may measure information representing an amount of consumed fuel and an exhaust amount of exhaust gas while products are being collected and information representing a recycling status of the collected products.
In order to achieve the above objects, according to the fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an environmental impact information system, including a process management device for managing a plurality of processes included in activities of an organization and an environmental management device which are connected with each other through a predetermined network, and wherein:
the process management device includes environmental impact information obtaining means for obtaining environmental impact information regarding an environmental impact at each of the plurality of processes;
the environmental management device includes
an environmental impact information collection means for collecting the environmental impact information which is obtained by the environmental impact information obtaining means, and
an environmental impact analyzing means for analyzing the environmental impact information collected by the environmental impact information collection means, and obtaining a set of environmental impacts in a product""s life cycle; and
report information generation means for generating report information in a predetermined format, based on the environmental impact information collected by the environmental impact information collection means and information representing the set of environmental impacts obtained by the environmental impact information analyzing means.
According to this invention, each of the process management device includes the environmental impact information obtaining means for obtaining environmental impact information regarding environmental impacts, for example, at a designing process, a manufacturing process, a distribution/sales process, a usage process (while products are used), a maintenance process and a collection/recycling process which are all included in the business activities. The environmental impact information collection means collects the obtained environmental impact information, through a network, for example. The environmental impact information analyzing means analyzes the collected environmental impact information, and obtains a set of environmental impacts in a product""s life cycle. The report information generation means generates report information in a predetermined format, based on the environmental impact information collected by the environmental impact information collection means and information representing the environmental impacts obtained by the environmental impact information analyzing means. As a result of this, the system of this invention can acquire the environmental impacts in the product""s life cycle, thereby facilitating the environmental conservation activities and contributing to the decision making on the business management.
In order to achieve the above object, according to the fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for providing environmental impact information, the method comprising the steps of:
obtaining environmental impact information regarding an environmental impact at each of a plurality of processes included in activities of an organization;
collecting the environmental impact information obtained at the obtaining step;
analyzing a set of environmental impacts in a product""s life cycle, based on the environmental impact information collected at the collecting step; and
providing information regarding the set of environmental impacts obtained at the analyzing step.
According to this invention, the environmental impact information obtaining step obtains environmental impact information regarding environmental impacts, for example, at a designing process, a manufacturing process, a distribution/sales process, a usage process (while products are used), a maintenance process and a collection/recycling process which are all included in the business activities. The environmental impact information collecting step collects the obtained environmental impact information, through a network, for example. The environmental impact information analyzing step analyzes the collected environmental impact information, and obtains a set of environmental impacts in a product""s life cycle. The environmental impact information providing step provides, in the form of a report for use in decision making with respect to the business management, information representing the environmental impacts obtained at the analyzing step. As a result of this, the system of this invention can acquire information representing the environmental impacts in the product""s life cycle, thereby facilitating the environmental conservation activities and contributing to the decision making on the business management.
In order to achieve the above objects, according to the sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer readable recording medium which records a program for controlling a computer to execute a method for providing environmental impact information, the method comprising the steps of:
obtaining environmental impact information regarding an environmental impact at each of a plurality of processes included in activities of an organization;
collecting the environmental impact information obtained at the obtaining step;
analyzing a set of environmental impacts in a product""s life cycle, based on the environmental impact information collected at the collecting step; and
providing information regarding the set of environmental impacts obtained at the analyzing step.
In order to achieve the above objects, according to the seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided a data signal embedded in a carrier wave and representing an instruction sequence for controlling a computer to execute a method for providing environmental impact information, the method comprising the steps of:
obtaining environmental impact information regarding an environmental impact at each of a plurality of processes included in activities of an organization;
collecting the environmental impact information obtained at the obtaining step;
analyzing a set of environmental impacts in a product""s life cycle, based on the environmental impact information collected at the collecting step; and
providing information regarding the set of environmental impacts obtained at the analyzing step.